1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to a mobile terminal and an audio zooming method thereof capable of effectively capturing sound generated by a subject while capturing and reproducing video.
2. Description of the Related Art
A mobile terminal may be configured to perform various functions. The examples of the various functions may include a data and voice communication function, a photo or video capture function through a camera, a voice storage function, a music file reproduction function through a speaker system, an image or video display function, and the like. Some mobile terminals may include an additional function capable of implementing games, and some other mobile terminal may be implemented as a multimedia player. Moreover, recent mobile terminals receive broadcast or multicast signals to allow the user to view video or television programs.
Furthermore, the efforts for supporting and enhancing the functions of the mobile terminal have been carried out. The foregoing efforts may include adding and improving software or hardware as well as changing and improving structural elements constituting a mobile terminal. Of them, a touch function of the mobile terminal allows even users who are unskilled in a button/key input to conveniently perform the operation of a terminal using a touch screen. In recent years, it has settled down as a key function of the terminal along with a user UI in addition to a simple input.
The mobile terminal provides various functions for capturing a subject using a camera. The user may enlarge an image around a specific subject by manipulating the control options of a camera to perform capturing of a desired image by manually and automatically adjusting the focus of the image or using a face recognition function or the like.
For example, the user may selectively use a front or rear camera of the mobile terminal according to the location of the subject to perform capturing, and particularly change the capture mode (portrait mode or landscape mode) according to the scene to perform capturing. Furthermore, the user may selectively enlarge a subject around a specific region of the screen or readjust the focus even during the reproduction.
When capturing a subject or scene of interest using various capturing techniques, a voice or sound generated by the subject is captured and stored by a microphone array.
However, when capturing a subject or scene of interest using various capturing techniques, according to the related art, there is a drawback in which surrounding sounds and noises as well as sounds generated by the subject are captured at the same time.
In order to solve the problem, according to the related art, a subject of interest or specific region on the screen is pointed by a touch or laser pointer and then the sound of the pointed subject or region is selectively captured.
However, a sound capture method with a conventional manual pointing has a drawback in which the user should point a sound source one by one, and especially the sound of a specific subject or region is only captured in no connection with the capture image, and thus there is a limit in which the image and sound are not synchronized during the reproduction of video.
Furthermore, according to the sound capture method in the related art, there are difficulties in capturing sound such as controlling the sound capture range in detail when capturing a specific one person's voice in an environment that there exist a plurality of persons, and forming the directivity for the locations of two persons in a separate manner as well as adjusting the sound capture range in various ways, respectively, when capturing both the voices of two persons exiting at different locations, and the like.
In particular, according to the sound capture method in the related art, only a sound generated from the subject is always focused (fixed) to capture the sound on the assumption that the subject is located around the center of the screen and the sound is also generated from the relevant subject.
However, the foregoing sound capture method exhibits a significantly limited sound capture performance when the location of the subject is different from the location of a sound generated from the relevant subject. For example, in an actual situation that a singer or instructor sings a song or give a lecture using a microphone, there are a lot of cases where a speaker delivering the relevant song or voice exists at a different location though the signer or instructor is located at the center of the screen. In this case, when a sound is captured based on the location of the singer or instructor, it causes a side effect of removing the singer's or instructor's voice. In order to overcome the foregoing drawback, when captured with a wide screen to capture all sounds generated from the speaker, there has been a drawback of containing unnecessary background screens and surrounding noises.
Furthermore, in order to solve the problems of the sound capture method of the related art, according to the related art, an audio zooming method capable of optimizing a sound generated by the subject to capture the sound in connection with the user's control operation and various capturing techniques associated therewith has been provided, but the audio zooming method is mainly used only during the capturing phase at present. As a result, when the captured and stored images are reproduced, the sound captured during the capturing phase is reproduced as it was and thus it has a drawback in which the user is unable to select voices and sounds generated from a specific region for reproduction.